Idolcore

For pages and posts about idolcore.

Minna no Kodomo-chan Kicks off Summer with an Inexplicable Home Movie

/ Homicidol Maniac / Leave a comment

I knew there was a reason to get out of bed today!

I don’t know if 2019, for idol, can truly be salvaged. After the huge run of beloved personalities and groups hanging it up just in the first quarter and a sudden paucity of particularly great releases, here we stand at the unofficial gateway to summer needing some kind of savior. Might we remember the year for the two BiSH EPs-turned-album? What about NECRONOMIDOL’s upcoming record? Or maybe something out of left field, yet to come?

Or maybe what two-time Corenament champions Minna no Kodomo-chan, who got me so very eager to see what they were going to be able to do with five straight months of new music when they … announced that that they were releasing five straight months of new music. Have mercy. You’d think that idols who consistently dominate the international popularity contests epic athletic contests annual contests that I definitely don’t rig Corenament would have just this enormous battery of digitized content for we humble gaijin fans to embrace, but it’s just not true — the best way to describe MV releases from the Children is “semi-annual.” (Or at least that’s the case for their history so far!) Rather, as we learned with “The Walls” a couple of weeks ago, they hold those cards close so as to unleash their full power at opportune and always impressive moments.

So this string was going to be special, you know? With five months of fresh material in the offing, it’s reasonable to hope that at least one track would get video treatment. And, brother, that hope was not in vain, though you may lose all hope by the time you reach the end:

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It’s Alive! A New One from Jekyll and Hyde

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Well if this isn’t a blast from the past! I don’t know how many of you guys recall when Jekyll and Hyde, my all-time favorite duality idols, was something that I tried to keep up with, but man, those were good times. What a group! They didn’t seem to release much stuff, but they performed constantly and lived in this corner of chika that always seems to produce quality acts that don’t quite crack through to a bigger presence. Most notably, though, they seemed to always be holding auditions, as if there were multiple side and sister projects planned. It was a trip.

And then things happened and directions shifted and before long I’d almost completely forgotten about the group. It’s been almost a year since the last thing, which was itself oddly similar to the thrust of this piece! Shame, Maniac, shame. Thank heavens for YouTube notifications, even when they’re several days late and seem to be completely devoid of context! But as soon as I realized what I was looking at, I knew that this was nothing to Weekender, but something to stick back out there to a group of people who are always hungry for more new idol and for whom this particular more idol just about is new — and in MV form!

Idols should always two-step

Man, that’s some frickin’ idolcore right there. What with all of the arthouse, alt-pop, post-rock whatever have you trends running through idol anymore, it’s awesome to hear a group killing a song in that particular vein of blendered genre-disregarding noise that made me so enthusiastic about this stuff in the first place. Nice hook, good vocals, punchy tune — you could do a lot worse, and they didn’t do bad at all!

So what is J&H up to anymore? Well, despite being down to two members (from their previous, like nine), they unveiled this sucker at their one-man a few weeks ago. This member business appears to be a calculated and fairly recent development at that, though, as photos from said one-man will indicate. Those kinds of changes are usually indicative of trouble, so maybe that’s the whole point of the MV. I don’t know! It’s been ages since I was invested in J&H, so I’m even less on top of things in this case than I am with most of the things in idol that I’m not at all on top of anymore! If you have details, they’re very welcome in the comments!

So, BiS Disbanded, Again

/ Kerrie / 3 Comments

Welp, so BiS just disbanded for a second time.

The initial announcement of their disbandment back in March wasn’t really given much coverage on Homicidols, since it also happened to collide with a gazillion other things both in idol and our personal lives, but I think the general reaction of the announcement was certainly one of anger, confusion, and betrayal. It came straight off the heels of the annual shitstorm that is the WACK audition, in which multiple members (and Trivago, back for more) were fired on the spot for what was ultimately a frustrating sideshow. The remaining members had finally had enough and called it quits, with Watanabe immediately holding casting calls for a third incarnation of BiS mere minutes after the previous audition had even ended. Looking back, it was probably a good thing that none of us were able to write about WACK EXHiBiTiON in the end as the resulting article would probably have just been a mess of all-caps angrish and thinly-veiled threats of revenge towards Watanabe. Continue reading →

I Hope You’re Ready for This BURST GIRL Album

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You know you’ve been asleep at the wheel for a little while when you see something in your feed and then spend several minutes trying to figure out if it’s new, but if it’s new to you if it’s not new, period, and then if it’s not new to you but you were actually functionally aware of it. That was me as of about four minutes ago, staring at Twitter and trying like hell to remember if BURST GIRL, now into their second year as a self-managed chika idol bomb squad, had made the fact that they have a June album in the works known, and if the meme-producing website that’s endlessly supportive of them had made use of this information, and if so what next.

Well, we did know, thank goodness, but heck go read that and clear out your own personal cobwebs*, too, because RIOT could well wind up being the release that you need to make life go boom in that loud, satisfying kind of way:

Well that’s certainly a fun ride! I’ll admit that, seeing the video still, I had hoped for a full digest or even just a more substantive teaser. That’s okay, though. It’s not like we aren’t all fairly familiar with the material, or one of last year’s favorites at the very least.

*New members!

Here’s Candye Syrup Putting It All on the Table for Their First Reboot Single

/ Homicidol Maniac / 3 Comments

When we last left Candye Syrup, it was … wow, it was actually a little while ago. That’ll happen when you completely reboot your project, I guess. And of course there was already plenty of material for the group to work with, so no real hurry to absolutely get more songs out there. Take your time, build up the members, keep those fans engaged, and then hit ’em with your best shot.*

But it’s time! The first (digital-only, I think) single from the new Candye Syrup is here and appropriately titled and definitely worth the click:

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I’ll Definitely Take This Version of Kinder, Gentler BiSH

/ Homicidol Maniac / Leave a comment

I was so tired, you guys. Like you know when you reach a point where not even sleep seems like it’s going to get the job done, and what you really need is to remove any and all obligations from your schedule for a few days while you blissfully do absolutely nothing of import? That’s where I was yesterday! And I thought to myself, you know what, you still need to finish the week, but let’s keep the sideshows to a minimum and just chill when possible. No projects, no working out, no bringing the job home, no idol.

So of course on that last point I knew better immediately and thought out loud, “Right, and now watch BiSH or somebody drop another MV and then all your not-plans will be for naught.”

Silly, silly Maniac. If I’d been mindful in even the tiniest way, I’d have known that, yes, another BiSH release was looming, and with it likely something to talk about. They were pretty clear about the build for CARROTS and STiCKS — one EP each in April and May, and then the full album in June — and had already provided one MV as promo to prove it. Why was I sleeping on this?

Here we are, then. And can I admit that I had the most conflicted smash of the Play button of my entire life? The song title and general visual aesthetic put my mind right down the path of expecting yet another Kentacore ballad that would probably sound very cool and nice and possibly even powerful, like that style is at its best, but very much the same, and yeah, that blunts a lot of enthusiasm. On the other hand, their last lead song and MV were absolutely delicious and reinvigorated my old passion for the group, so I had to see where this landed one way or another, right?

Yeah. Continue reading →

It Was about Time for Something uijin, and They Delivered

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Yesterday was a surprisingly full day of single releases. I guess that literal-end-of-an-era thing was a good reason!

Among this little glut of wins for people like us was uijin, who are wonderful and can do no wrong, and who I’d been watching a little closer lately after their little sister group did this just a couple of weeks ago, and who are in the midst of one of those consecutive-single-release things that all the kids are into these days … who gave us an MV for their latest single, “ignition”! End of weird paragraph!

I’m just the tiniest bit disappointed that the MV wasn’t a full-on commitment to what’s otherwise an energy-addled, aptly named song, but that’s fine because it turns out that they’re using to doubly promote their big one-man on Sunday. Not the choice that I’d make, but an acceptable one! It’s not like they released any video at all in conjunction with the March single’s release. When it’s uijin, you take what you can get!

Prepare Yourself for a Journey Into the Mind of NEMLESSS

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

Doop-dee-doop, minding my own business … hello, what’s this?

Well I never! Continue reading →

Now That It’s Out, I Recommend the New raymay Single

/ Homicidol Maniac

Dang, release day came and went for raymay, and they haven’t shared out a video, so we may as well have ourselves a good long look at raymay’s newest single. You may rightly recall the rightful embullience toward raymay’s debut, coming late in 2018 but counting as 2019 because of how we do things and already one of the year’s very best and most promising, and their first (very good) single. Here’s the second, now out on the usual streaming platforms:

And now that you’ve taken a few minutes to listen, let’s talk about it! Continue reading →

The More Tsurezure Things Change, the More Things Tsurezure the Same

/ Homicidol Maniac

When the Idol Known in English as Not Secured, Loose Ends But Still at Home as Yukueshirezutsurezure Yeah I Can Still Type It teased out a noontime Sunday something yesterday, one could have been forgiven for thinking the worst. In a year’s time, two of the group’s most stalwart members had departed, a ton of previous momentum lost, and while fans have embraced the new order no matter how bitter their tears, I think disappointment is something that we’ve just come to expect from this powerfully underrated outfit.

And instead, thank heavens, it was the MV for their latest “Odd eye” single and not only is that a huge relief, but what a showing out of the new lineup:

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